Sam Waley-Cohen: Gold Cup contender Noble Yeats has just improved and improved

The jockey who partnered Noble Yeats to victory in last year’s Grand National said he could not rule out the stayer improving yet again to capture the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, having been blown away by his progress since the Cheltenham Festival 12 months ago.

Sam Waley-Cohen will not be aboard Noble Yeats at Cheltenham a week on Friday after retiring on the spot following his Grand National success, but he believes the eight-year-old is by far and away a superior horse to the one who finished a well-beaten ninth in last year’s Ultima Handicap Chase.

Waley-Cohen was riding Noble Yeats for the first time at Cheltenham last year after his father, former racecourse chairman Robert Waley-Cohen, purchased him from owner Paul Byrne.

Since last year’s festival Noble Yeats has recorded his four best performances on Racing Post Ratings, an achievement his former jockey puts down to running in the Grand National, in which he stunned his rivals to win at 50-1 and become the first seven-year-old to take the prize since the second world war.

“He’s just improved and improved and I don’t think any of us ever thought there would be that much improvement to come from him,” Waley-Cohen said on Sunday. 

“When I rode him at Cheltenham last year, the answer to whether I thought he would ever be a Gold Cup horse would have been no, but he learned so much from his experience at Aintree.

“In the first half of the Grand National he had no chance of winning, but in the second half you came away thinking you could go anywhere – the penny really dropped with him that day. What’s more, you can tell he’s really enjoying it as well.”

Noble Yeats: bids to become the first horse since L’Escargot to win the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold CupCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Noble Yeats is a general 8-1 shot for the Gold Cup, with the market headed by Galopin Des Champs at around 13-8, as he bids to become the first horse since L’Escargot to win the Grand National and Gold Cup.

L’Escargot was successful at Aintree in 1975, four years after he won the second of his Gold Cups. Golden Miller won the Grand National in 1934, the same year he won the third of his five Gold Cups.

The Waley-Cohen family celebrated success in the Gold Cup when Long Run claimed the 2011 running under Sam, with the former leading amateur enjoying the opportunity to be part of the experience again, even if it is from the sidelines.

“When I was riding I think I always switched off from the previews around the meeting anyway as it can get so noisy and excitable,” he said. “So in a way it doesn’t feel that different this year to previous years.

“It’s nice to have a horse going there to keep everyone interested in Noble Yeats, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say it would be exciting to be lining up with a ride in the Gold Cup – but every day is not a Gold Cup day, is it?”

He continued: “Dad’s an enthusiast and he’s full of excitement; that’s the beauty of racing and that’s what makes you get up and want to be a part of it every day.

"It’s such a privilege to have a horse competing in these races at this level – they are rare. We didn’t think we’d have the chance to do it once, so to have that and then get another makes us feel very lucky.

“There’s been nothing at all negative happen in terms of his preparation and you just never know what’s going to happen with these races until you are there.”

Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup (March 17)

bet355: 11-8 Galopin Des Champs, 13-2 Bravemansgame, 7 A Plus Tard, 8 Noble Yeats, Stattler, 10 Conflated, 12 Ahoy Senor, Protektorat, Shishkin, 20 bar

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